The conversation usually starts with someone saying that they can even draw a straight line, I offer them my ruler, Nobody can draw a straight line. We all must learn to depict things as we see them in our mind. We learn tools and tricks that enable us to transfer our thoughts and images in our mind onto a 2 or 3 dimensional medium.

We make several assumptions when we do this, one is that the viewer will know that this (item) is something that he is supposed to decipher (when we see something that looks like a picture frame we automatically say to ourselves O.K. what am I looking at, the mind instantly scans the interior of that delineated space for a recognizable image, something that gives a clue as to what is the subject matter here. Just as when you started reading this the first thing your mind did was to check to see if you knew the language/ code.
As soon as the mind sees something it recognizes it begins to decipher the communication of the “artist” or the creator of the “item of interest”

If a Horse is rendered in a loosely recognizable way but still obviously meant to represent a horse the mind recognizes this and says I know that, that’s a horse but what else does it say about a horse? perhaps it focuses on the strength and speed of a horse so the mind interprets the way that speed is represented in relation to the main subject matter and says “I can FEEL the speed and the strength of the horse in that work of Art.

Now put that same image of a Horse into photoshop and apply a filter of some kind, now the image is distorted from what it was But there is still enough of the original design to see something in there that looks like a Horse so the process proceeds until the viewer experiences the communication of what the artist is saying about the subject matter. Now apply more filter , now there is No recognizable form that is in the memory bank, the mind struggles to find the starting point of the communication, a language, an image, anything that strikes a chord. but it simply isn’t there, then it is truly an ABSTRACT item of interest because there is no communication between the artist and the viewer any more, the only thing left for the viewer to do is to pretend that they know what the message is when in fact there isn’t one and no one had the courtesy to tell them. This is a trick! millions of people enter art galleries and museums and walk around looking at things and images that actually don’t have ANY meaning or communication at all, they are the equivalent of wallpaper, If they are honest they usually exit saying “I just don’t get it” but what is there to “GET” from a solid black canvas with an entire room devoted to just that? Nothing!

If I handed you my latest book and said read this, but when you opened it you found that is was nothing but blank pages what do you think you would “Get” from my book? even if there is writing on the pages but it is in another language than what I can read it is no better.
Quite obviously this is simply the same old old story of The Emperor’s New Clothes. People who look at a solid black canvas hanging in a museum and ponder deeply the meaning of it are fools. The emperor has no clothes and the painting has no subject and therefore no possible communication other that of decorative wallpaper and last time I checked we don’t display wallpaper in the Guggenheim. Although it would be preferable in some cases.

People simply pretend to see something that may or may not have been in the mind of the “artist” It is a game that if played long enough people can become “experts” at deciphering other people’s blank books and making up wonderful stories about imagined profundity and meaning. Bottom line for me is this, if an item of interest has no discernable subject matter either because it is in a language that the viewer doesn’t recognize or simply too abstract for recognition then it is futile and not actually a piece of art at all but is simply what the Emperor got for his money i.e. illusionary clothes. I have more to say on this, come on back one time good buddy over.

-Christi at theartcake.com, an art blog

On Wikipedia it states in 1863 the hospital was renamed from it’s original name Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, to the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane, with another name change in 1913 to Weston State Hospital.

Considering it’s currently called the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum and was named Weston State Hospital, (what is stated in this post) we do not see how the information is misleading.